Behind Closed Doors review: a full-blooded look at domestic abuse

This documentary followed three cases – from the moment emergency calls were placed, right through to the courts and beyond. With so many questions raised, we’d need a full series to unpick all the issues

The bare statistics are always extraordinary. One in 12 women will report a physical assault in her lifetime. Victims of domestic violence endure an average of 50 incidents before they go to the police. And 43% of those who go to the police will be a victim of another attack within a year.

But they expanded into full-blooded life last night in Behind Closed Doors(BBC1), which opened with a recording of a woman’s emergency phone call as she was being almost beaten to death by her partner. Six hours into the assault she managed to ring 999 and then throw her mobile under the bed. The police arrived seven minutes later. “You’re almost resigning yourself …” she said, breathless, again, with terror at the memory of him holding a stereo speaker above her, about to smash her head in, “to: This is it, I’m going to die … Let it be the last punch, so it stops, and I won’t feel it any more.”

Sabrina is one of the three women whose cases (handled by the Thames Valley Police domestic abuse team) the documentary-makers followed for a year, from the moment emergency calls were placed. The women waived their right to anonymity so that this film, exploring the prevalence and pattern of domestic violence and its treatment by the courts, could be made.

The second study was of Helen, who met Lawrence 10 years ago. For a short time, he was nice to her and to her five-year-old son. By the time her son was 12, he was having to run for help to stop Lawrence’s beatings. In between, there were years of assaults, promises to change, letters begging forgiveness, and endless, futile second chances given. Police photographs show the imprint of his shoe on her face from his most recent attack and she has been staying with her dad for six weeks – effectively in hiding – while Lawrence bombards her with hundreds of calls and texts a day. “Grass fucking slag I’ll kill u … I’m going to beat you inside out.” He pleads guilty to the assault and is fined £1,700.

Jemma was punched, dragged and strangled to unconsciousness by Dwayne, who would wait for her to come round each time before he started again. “He has been on the radar a long time with different women,” says one of the investigating officers, appearing hopeful that this time will be the one that sends him, at last, to jail.

Condign punishment is a rare sighting. Helen jeopardises her own case by meeting up with Lawrence. Why? “He’s like a drug,” she says helplessly. Part of her is still in love with part of him, and so is part of Sabrina with part of her assailant, Paul. You can blame them and dismiss them as complicit and culpable – or you can blame the men who seek out women made vulnerable by circumstances, then break their spirits, stamp on their faces, fracture their ribs and puncture their lungs. The law, it seemed, on the face of these three cases – with Lawrence, in particular, going back and forth to court on charges of harassment and breaches of various orders with almost complete impunity – seems to err on the side of the former. The judge acknowledges that Sabrina was lucky to come out of her flat alive but hands down a sentence that means Paul will be free two months after trial. Dwayne gets seven years. Justice for Jemma, perhaps, but your thoughts lie with the other women during those years he was only “on the radar”.

This concentration on three individual cases made for a compelling and urgent programme, but it would be good to see another one (actually, I’d make it an entire season of such programmes) exploring and unpicking all the things this only had time to touch on: why women stay, the myths around domestic violence, and an explanation as to why we treat its perpetrators so gently, why we are so willing to blame victims, and … well, just why, really. Why, why, why?

On Fox, life is much simpler. This series of The Walking Dead is attempting to muddy the moral waters a little – how cold-bloodedly can Rick and the gang set out to kill Negan’s gang without becoming as corrupt as all the (living) enemies they have faced in the past? But its guiding force remains the same: to show zombies being splattered and people being caught and eaten in as many inventive ways as possible before the 45 minutes are up. It is very restful. Long may this mindless gore-filled juggernaut thunder on. The apocalypse is so much better than real life.